This related reference might also be of interest - Excelia HiFi Top 1000 Components which can easily be translated to English in Chrome, and provides relative component rankings from reviews compiled from Germany's Stereo and Audio magazines. Of course you can't consider any such rankings as the final word, but they can provide some perspective. YMMV definitely applies here, there is no substitute for actual auditions.
I'm more enthusiastic about what I see in this issue than (for example) Tone Audio. The first issue is pretty cool too. Hasn't Michael Lang been involved with other audio/video publications prior to this?